Online event organiser’s checklist – LIVE streaming video

Live pay-per-view events give a tremendous opportunity to skyrocket your revenues, grow a bigger audience, go global and are an amazing way to convert your viewers into paying customers.

How to make sure you succeed? Based on our experience with such major and demanding clients as TEDMED, Viaplay, and Boston Breakers we’ve created a checklist that will help you avoid any pitfalls.

2-3 Months Before The D-Day:

Get the right gear: You need to capture your event with the appropriate recording equipment, ranging from a single digital camcorder to multiple cameras and mixing desks. As for the output: use a PC or a laptop equipped in the right encoding software.

Position your camera: Your live online event should deliver the best live experience ever. Make sure to place the camera to deliver the best possible view. Meet with venue management to review permits, licenses, limitations, such as audio limitations, etc.

Secure the stream: The minimum set-up for an HQ LIVE stream requires a wire connection plus a wi-fi connection (3G/4G). Make sure your servers are able to handle the peak loads: we see that usually the 10% of all bookings happen in the last 10-15 minutes before the show starts. We advise to work with professionals here. It’s totally worth spending 2-3K US dollars for a good production coordinator.

Think of a backup: Air connections are bound to fail if there’s a big number of users, connecting to your live event at the same moment. Don’t rely on 4G solely. Use air connections as an alternative when there are no landlines available. If you cannot provide HD experience, communicate about it on your site so at least you set the right expectations upfront.

Improve the quality of your company’s website: E-commerce and Live PPV are all about trust. Be sure your brand and website make people feel safe enough to add their credit card number. Don’t forget to put the link to the event pre-booking page on all websites that your brand/ company owns.

Complete the event pre-booking page: Is your background branded and have you uploaded your logo? Is your pre-sales message punchy and visible? Have you added a preview?

Delegate customer support activities to the skilled team members, unless you go for an outsourced live support.

Create a marketing plan: If you have 100K followers or subscribers and their engagement is small, let’s say about 5%, likely you won’t sell 20k tickets; if you have 1000 UV / day to your website (mostly recurring visitors), you probably won’t sell 10k tickets. Stay realistic about your goals and resources. We can help you assess your assets and forecast better – contact us at theteam@cleeng.com

Your marketing plan – key points:

Research and contact the sponsors/partners – ask if they’re interested in having their promotional screens displayed during the event breaks.

1 Month Before:

Maximize the pre-booking phase: Don’t start too early, but provide at least two weeks of quality pre-booking, integrating it with your marketing plan. 20% of the sales usually happens before the D-Day.

Activate social sharing: Stats show that every share can bring ca. $3 extra. Cleeng can automatically add coupons that your customers can share with their friends.

Choose a streaming platform and set up your event on it.

Create content to be shared through your marketing channels (blogposts, PR copy, sponsors’ screens to be displayed during the breaks, etc.). Prepare your social messages and a publishing schedule. Make sure to include unique hashtag and alternate messages about the offline and online event. Don’t treat your live pay-per-view as ‘just’ an addition to the offline event, but as an important part of the overall success in terms of revenue and audience growth.

Define who’s responsible for the tech part, customer support and monitoring social media. Check the registration area and make sure those involved in support understand the check-in process and know how to tackle possible issues. Create a crisis kit – Twitter/ Facebook template messages so you can quickly communicate to your customers, in case your LIVE stream experiences any downtimes.

1 week before:

Double check if the gear is working, the connection and audio are stable. Rehearse.

Review your master agenda and finalize the back-up plan.

Brief the team members and contractors on responsibilities and timelines.

Create a back-up of all materials.

The D-Day:

Control the servers and how they handle the pre-booking peak loads.

Check the connection, video and audio quality.

Five minutes before the event starts display the relevant information such as “the event will start soon“, “please stay tuned” and anything the marketing team has prepared.

Keep an eye on Facebook and Twitter. If you get questions answer them right away.

Don’t forget that your LIVE audience is also tuned to your event, make sure you welcome them too!

After the event:

Analyze and evaluate any complaints you received (if using Cleeng, we will provide you with a complete reporting after the event is over).

Put your event recordings online as VOD to maximize the revenue. We have the right solution in place.

Conduct a post-event survey to see what can be improved.

Start planning your next event!

Anything missing? What’s your experience with Live online events? Let us know in the comments!